Nuchal?? Shall i? and whats the difference between this and just the blood tests?

[Kezza7779]

Hi my widwife said the Nuchal doesnt tell you anything different than what the free bloodtests do! Is this right? Who's had a Nuchal? Why? and whats different?xxx

I had a Nuchal on Friday. It checks for the presence of a nasal bone (mising in most Down's babies), heart (again normally damaged in Down's babies) and also any skull abnoramilty. It also checks the amount of fluid behind the babies neck ( Down's babies tend to have more)While this on its own cannot definately conclude if you are carrying a Down's baby it can give a good indicator, espically when combined with a maternal blood sample. My risk decresed from 1:230 (am 35)to 1:4500. Of course no test can mitigate risk but it can be a good indicator. It also tests for Edwards Syndrome. Hope this is of some help.

It is nice to see the baby at 12 weeks rather than wait until 20 weeks and I found it very reassuring

Thanks MPD, could they tell the sex at your Nuchal? how far gone were you friday?
i have a 12 week scan in a weeks time anyway and would have to book to have the nuchal after this....x

I thought the nuchal was more accurate than the triple, which is why many trusts are moving towards it now?

I didn't have the nuchal test. I think they do tell you the same thing, but you get the information earlier - at 12 weeks - the bloodtests are done at 16 weeks.

I'm not sure if there is any difference in the reliability of the 2 tests.

Does anyone have this free or do you have to pay? its £180 here!x

I didn't have either. What will be will be. I think all NHS trusts are different but my understanding was to get better results you need both but even with both it is still not conclusive and that is when an amnio becomes an option. Amnio was a big no no for me so I didn't see the need to have an additional scan (we would have had to have had that privately) and bloods.

Everyone has their own opinions though.

Sorry for all the Q's im so confused about what to do. My mum thinks id be mad to pay £180 for the Nuchal when the free bloods are available.

i know this may offend some people but me and my partner discussed and agreed that if we knew we were having a baby with a severe dissability such as downs (or anything that COULD effect the qulity of the BABYS not OUR lives) we wouldnt want to go ahead with the pregnancy so it is important for us to know if we are high risk and if so needed to go on and have amnio.

Im 28 with no other children!

Advice needed.......!

I think you need to do what is right for you and your husband. I think when you have a scan they will also take bloods too but it is a lot of money.

My opinion is that potentially, the private scan is just a way of getting money out of you and giving you one more thing to worry about! People got along fine for years without private scans (says she who is having a 3d one in a few weeks!)

I never classed downs as a disability we would terminate over. Don't know much about Edwards Syndrome though.

It is only a decision you 2 can make - not with opinions from family members.

OK thanks for the info.

I was only offered a blood test by the NHS when I was 16 weeks to which they said to me that it is 60% accurate but all trusts seem to say/do different things.

Yes i think your right about the decision with regard to opinions of family members.

On the subject of downs, its a tricky one as noone knows the extent of it until the baby is born, my friend has a beautiful mildly downs child who is lovely and really able, however my mums friend has a severely downs child and the quality of her life is very limited. Its a VERY hard decision to make and i respect and admire parents with a child that has any type of dissability. I work with children some of whom have things like autism and they are (most of the time) lovely kids.

Kezza, I just read my message back and I sounded really blunt when you have a decision to make. I didn't mean to sound so horrid. I do apologise.

Hi Kezza

I was 12 weeks on Friday and no they couldn't tell the sex. I was offered the scan free, but I do think it has about an 80% accuarcy rate.

I think it is worth paying for if it would set your mind at rest. I don't think it is a way of getting money from anyone. It just depends if your trust offers them or not. I was lucky mine did and also lucky thatit was carried out at Kings in London which has pioneered this scan.

Nuchal free at Chelsea (did "Least well" though!). I think it is quite a lot in London. But no bloods (unless you are 35) in which case I think you get the top-of-the-range combined blood/nuchal. Free.

Just to pick up on what hatrick says - a high nuchal translucency measurement can also be an indicator for heart defects. We had the full OSCAR at 12 weeks and were given a high risk of Down's because our nuchal measurement was 4.8mm (normal is up to 3mm I think). Chromosome tests for Down's etc came back normal, but because of the measurement we were offered a specialist heart scan at 18 weeks which confirmed a severe heart defect.

One hopes the 20 week scan would have picked up the heart defect anyway, but it might not, many are missed, and this way we got to see a specialist foetal cardiologist straight away.

So from that point of view, it was worth it for us.

Yes i can see why, ive decided i will have it and pay the £180! Whats a £180 for peace of mind OR forewarning eh? Thanks guys x x x

Good luck Kezza, hope you get better news than us!

Thanks Little, goodluck with everything i hope your lo will be just fine x x x xx

I had the nuchal becuase if there was something wrong I would much rather have known at 12 weeks, than at 20 weeks (which would have been the case in my area)

Still not sure if I would have done anything about it if I had shown high risk for downs, but if I had to make a decision about a termination, I'd much rather make it early on than half way through the pregnancy.

It still only gives you a likelihood though, not a definite answer. If you come out with a high possibility of downs I think they suggest a amnio...

hope this is of help.

I found the test very reassuring indeed, and found it worth the £170 it cost us.. I was losw risk anyway and it meant one less thing for me to worry about for the rest of the pregnancy.

I feel for you what a dilema!!! My advice would be to go for the nuchal and the bloods. The bloods are great as they look for so many more abnormalities. More than they tell you. My sister had the bloods and came back 1 in 10 chance. She had an amio which showed that the baby had klinefelters syndrome. This syndrome is not well known and the baby would look normal. It isn't until the baby reaches pubity that differences show. Klinefelters is an abnormality in a chromosone which prevents pubity in both females and males. Males can develop female charateristics and vice versa. I would definately have the bloods.The advantages of a nuchal is that if it is positive for downs the termination is not as tough at 12 weeks as it would be a 19 weeks.
With mt third pregnancy I was very high risk for downs syndrome which an amio confirmed. The termination was awful as you have to go through the labour ect. Sorry to be graphic.

Hope this helps in some way.

They don't automatically check the nasal bone. 40% of children with DS have a heart defect- I'm not sure that all of those would be picked up by a nuchal- not sure what they can see at 13ish weeks.

The nuchal will screen for various problems including DS. Also things like Turner's (X0).

I had a nuchal (free) with ds1 and ds2 as I would have wanted a baby with anencephaly picked up as early as possible. I didn't pay for a nuchal with ds3 (different area not available on NHS) as I thought, although later, the blood test was very likely to pick up anencephaly. Things like DS weren't a consideration for us so I saved my 100 quid.